Gender

Question 1

Robin Lakoff - 1975
Deficit model - what is it?
Conclusion’s

Answer 1

Tag questions are used to express insecurities in womens language
No evidence but women use more intensifiers, tag questions, empty adjectives, hedges
Sees womens language as weaker, lacks authority

Question 2

Jenny Cheshire -1982
What was her study?
Conclusion

Answer 2

Studied the use of non-standards in the speech of young children
That boys used the non-standard forms more frequently than girls did
E.g. expletives to bond

Question 3

Peter Trudgill - 1974
Conclusion?

Answer 3

Men use more non standard forms, and covert prestige and women use more standard forms

Question 4

Janet Holmes - 1992
Conclusion?

Answer 4

Tag questions aren’t just about uncertainty, a way of keeping discussion going or being polite
Hedges and fillers have many functions

Question 5

William O’Barr and Bowman Atkins - 1980
Conclusion?

Answer 5

Features of uncertain speech are more dependent on power relations than gender
Features in low class women as well as women

Question 6

Pamela Fishman - 1983
Conclusion?

Answer 6

Women use more tag questions than men to START conversation with males
Men don’t want to use this conversational ‘shitwork’ because of what they perceive as their dominant role

Question 7

Zimmerman and West - 1975
Conclusion?

Answer 7

Men interrupt more than women in mixed sex conversation - power balance
Also parents interrupt their children more

Question 8

Deborah Tannen - 1990
Conclusion?

Answer 8

6 contrasting ways men and women use language
Status vs support
Independence vs intimacy
Advice vs understanding
Information vs feelings
Orders vs proposals
Conflict vs compromise

Question 9

Jennifer Coates - 1989
Conclusion?

Answer 9

All female talk is cooperative - speakers negotiate discussions and support each others rights as speakers

Question 10

Jane Pilkington - 1992
Conclusion?

Answer 10

All female talk is more collaborative than all male talk
Women have more positive politeness strategies when talking to other women
Men speaking are less complimentary and supportive

Question 11

Koenraad Kuiper - 1991
Conclusion?

Answer 11

All male talk, men likely to pay less attention to the need for save face and instead use insults as a way of expressing solidarity

Question 12

Judith Butler - 1990
Conclusion?

Answer 12

The idea that we ‘perform’ playing a gendered role - gender ‘performativity’

Question 13

Janet Hyde - 2005
Conclusion?

Answer 13

‘Gender similarities hypothesis’
More similarities than differences in male and female language
And differences could be due to age, class, ethnicity, education, occupation, sexuality etc

Question 14

Deborah Cameron - 2008
Conclusion?

Answer 14

Criticised the idea that there are natural differences in male and female speech
Men and women use language in very different ways and for very different reasons

Question 15

Mary Talbot - 2010
Conclusion?

Answer 15

Gender is socially constructed
People acquire characteristics which are perceived as masculine or feminine

Question 16

Michaela Koch - 2008
Conclusion?

Answer 16

Women have less social mobility and their lang is less developed
The difference in lang isn’t sexuality is power
Supports Judith Butlers theory

Question 17

Zimmerman and West (1975)

Answer 17

Men interrupt much more in mixed sex conversation
Reflects power balance - also found parents interrupt their children more

Question 18

Brown and Levinson (1987)

Answer 18

We all have 2 basic face needs that are constantly in tension.
Positive face - to be accepted and liked
Negative face - to be independent and not imposed on
Face threatening act - directly challenged someone’s face needs, threatens a persons self image

Question 19

Film and gender study

Answer 19

80’s: “dirty dancing” - Zimmerman and west - male interrupt women, men less likely to pay attention to saving face, women more apologetic + positive face
90’s: ‘’10 things I hate about you” - agree with lakoff, male dominance in convo, female tag questions, empty adjectives, male lang aggressive - agree with Kuiper - mock and negative face
10’s: “letters to Juliette” - men use more intensifiers, men empty adjectives, oppose 90s. Argue: women interrupt more & more expletives, overall male use more expletives
20’s: “the holidate” - male more features of uncertainty, male lots of tag questions, men more insults & sarcasm. Deborah Tannen - female compromised in situation

Question 20

Bill leap 1993

Answer 20

Lavender language - gay men had to live coded lives, with a secret language
Polari - dialect, example of covert prestige (“naff” -tasteless)
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